Families of Venezuela’s political prisoners rely on tidbits for proof loved ones are alive

By Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald

When hooded men seized opposition leader Freddy Superlano in Caracas in July 2024, his wife began a desperate search across the city’s detention centers. For days, she was told nothing. Then, a week later, an intelligence officer at Helicoide prison in the capital admitted he was inside. She has not seen him since.

Superlano’s wife, Aurora Silva, said she only knew he was alive because prison guards routinely handed her his dirty clothes and brief notes from him asking her to bring basic necessities to the prison.

Her story is one of many documented in a new report by Human Rights Watch and the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Venezuela. The groups say dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners have been held with no information ab